Wells was presented with a Crimean cannon on a metal carriage. Pictures circa 1900 show the cannon in the Market Square, positioned just to the north of the market cross. The Wells Market Place has been a focal point of the City over the ages and still is today with a twice weekly market on Wednesday and Saturday.

The city of Wells in Somerset lost its Russian gun in the salvage appeals of World War II. By the spring of 1940, appeals were being launched for waste paper. As the war progressed this was extended to metals, rags, rubber, bones and kitchen waste. A Scrap Metals Committee was formed and iron railings and gates started to disappear. The Russian gun was resisted until the Cathedral railings went in February 1943, and with them the gun. (see Hale L 2005, History round Wells, p.48. 'Wells at War', Local History Workshop.)